"The Secrets of Paper and Ink" by Lindsay Harrel

[reviewsbyerin]

 


Women's therapist Sophia is well-trained and attuned to the needs of her clients, but all her knowledge did not help her when she found herself in an abusive relationship. Although a car accident took her boyfriend's life and ended the physical torment, she still hears his voice in her head every single day, as well as the weight of her own failure in falling prey to him. 

Ginny Rose left everything to follow her British husband to his home country. Now he's left her to "find himself," and Ginny is stuck running a bookstore in Cornwall. It was his dream, but now it's all she has, and she's going to fight with everything she's got to keep the struggling business afloat.

When returning to work proves disastrous for Sophia, her boss sends her on a lengthy sabbatical. With nothing to lose, she takes off to England to immerse herself in the land of her favorite authors. Sophia ends up renting a room from Ginny, and the two women begin a journey of friendship which will prove pivotal to their futures.

On one of the first days assisting Ginny at the bookstore, Sophia finds a notebook full of journal entries written by a Victorian woman. Something about Emily grabs Sophia and sets her on a quest to find the full identity of this woman and how life played out beyond the entries in the notebook. Emily's story is given to us in chapters interwoven with those of Sophia and Ginny, and is a vital part of the narrative.

Hands down, this is the best split-time novel I've read. I was equally invested in the lives of the modern women and in Emily from the 1850s. The heartbreak that each of them faced, their struggles to go on when people and circumstances left them disappointed, the brokenness in their journeys -- they mirror the real emotions we see when we look inside ourselves. This book was deeply captivating yet also one that I wanted to read slowly to savor as I processed emotions with the characters. Though some resolutions to the storylines were easily foreseen, there were a few twists and turns that took me by surprise, and for once I actually enjoyed a bit of predictability because it gave a feeling of security to me as a reader when so much seemed weighty and close to home. 

This was a truly beautiful story that I would recommend to everyone who loves thought-provoking fiction. Be watching for The Secrets of Paper and Ink to be on my Best Of list at the end of 2019!